s of masonry, composed of ten or twelve layers of
rough stones, and formed an enclosure of forty feet by twenty-five or
thirty. At the upper part there was a platform, which was reached by a
stone staircase, the entrance to which was closed by a massive door (Fig.
349). On three sides of this platform rested sixteen square pillars, about
thirty feet high, made of blocks of stone a foot thick. These pillars were
joined to one another by double bars of wood, which were fastened into
them, and bore iron chains three feet and a half long, to which the
criminals were suspended. Underneath, half-way between these and the
platform, other bars were placed for the same purpose. Long and solid
ladders riveted to the pillars enabled the executioner and his assistants
to lead up criminals, or to carry up corpses destined to be hung there.
Lastly, the centre of the structure was occupied by a deep pit, the
hideous receptacle of the decaying remains of the criminals.

One can easily imagine the strange and melancholy aspect of this
monumental gibbet if one thinks of the number of corpses continually
attached to it, and which were feasted upon by thousands of crows. On one
occasion only it was necessary to replace _fifty-two_ chains, which were
useless; and the accounts of the city of Paris prove that the expense of
executions was more heavy than that of the maintenance of the gibbet, a
fact easy to be understood if one recalls to mind the frequency of capital
sentences during the Middle Ages. Montfaucon was used not only for
executions, but also for exposing corpses which were brought there from
various places of execution in every part of the country. The mutilated
remains of criminals who had been boiled, quartered, or beheaded, were
also hung there, enclosed in sacks of leather or wickerwork. They often
remained hanging for a considerable time, as in the case of Pierre des
Essarts, who had been beheaded in 1413, and whose remains were handed over
to his family for Christian burial after having hung on Montfaucon for
three years.

The criminal condemned to be hanged was generally taken to the place of
execution sitting or standing in a waggon, with his back to the horses,
his confessor by his side, and the executioner behind him. He bore three
ropes round his neck; two the size of the little finger, and called
_tortouses_, each of which had a slip-knot; the third, called the _jet_,
was only used to pull the victim off the ladder, a